Plato's Symposium

Richard Hunter

The Symposium is Plato's best-known work. It is now a seminal text, not just for the representation of Socrates, Plato's ontology, and for the history of ideas about desire, but for Athenian social and political history, the history of rhetoric, and for the image of the intellectual in Western tradition. It is also a high point in classical literary art. This book pays close attention to parody of modes of style and thought as well as to the provocative construction of the whole. It will introduce readers to the work itself by contextualizing it in Greek literature in general and the Platonic corpus in particular, and, with necessary brevity, to the main outlines of its reception and influence.

Plato's Symposium

Richard Hunter

Description

Oxford Approaches to Classical Literature (Series Editors: Kathleen Coleman and Richard Rutherford) introduces individual works of Greek and Latin literature to readers who are approaching them for the first time. Each volume sets the work in its literary and historical context, and aims to offer a balanced and engaging assessment of its content, artistry, and purpose. A brief survey of the influence of the work upon subsequent generations is included to demonstrate its enduring relevance and power. All quotations from the original are translated into English.

Plato's Symposium tells of a dinner party at a crucial point in Athenian history at which the guests decide that they will each in turn deliver a speech in praise of love. The humorous and brilliant work that follows points the way towards all Western thinking about love. The Symposium is also one of Plato's most sophisticated meditations on the practice of philosophy. This book introduces the literary and historical context of Plato's work, surveys and explains the arguments, and considers why Plato has cast this work in a highly unusual narrative form. A final chapter traces the influence of the Symposium from antiquity to the modern day.

Richard Hunter

Author Information

Plato's Symposium

Richard Hunter

Reviews and Awards

"[Hunter's] deep command of Greek literature broadens our appreciation of many parts of the dialogue. All readers of this book, beginner or advanced, stand to gain a richer understanding of the Symposium."--New England Classical Journal

"Hunter is largely successful in achieving his stated goals, his book is clear, stimulating, and well-informed introduction, rich with detail that puts the Symposium into its larger cultural context. It will be of particular value to students in literature and classics, but also of some interest to those with a broad interest in the history of philosophy."--The Classical Outlook